Fenza: She of the Forest

"Ocolla, I have exciting news! I want you to be the first to hear it."

"What is it, Nard?" she urged.

He tried to contain his excitement, his pride, but it was a losing battle. "Ocolla...Ulily's been sacked. I've been promoted. To Commander of the Eastern Wingspan."

"Commander?" Ocolla repeated in shock.

"Yes! My on-the-field training starts tonight! I can't believe it!"

The look on her face was one of mixed emotions. It was difficult to read her reaction. "Eastern Wingspan...the Eastern Wingspan that includes me?"

"Absolutely! Ocolla, I'm going nuts. I want to celebrate, and I want to celebrate with you. Tonight, after patrol, I'll take you to the finest restaurant in Goldroad."

"Nard..."

"I'll empty my wallet to treat you. Maybe a concert, a movie afterward—"

"—Nard!"

"What?"

Then he noticed her expression. It did not share in his joy.

"I can't," she said weakly.

"Can't? I don't..."

"Nard, listen." She took his hand in hers. "You are now Commander of the Eastern Wingspan, Tanglewood Shadow Patrol. That means you'll be my superior. I...can't be with a superior that way, Nard."

The world started falling down on him, piece by piece. "But..."

"Nard, please understand," she said with her own hurt. "We can't cause a scandal."

"And this means...no more...house visits?"

She shook her head sadly. "No more house visits."

Moments ago Nard was a man whose life was coming together. And now all joy had been torn from him.

"Ocolla...Ocolla, I love you!"

She ran out of HQ's doors and into the night. "I'm sorry, Nard."

****

Qeirc's accent meant he was definitely not of Corinian origin. In fact he made his homeland known the moment one walked into his bar. A hand-painted sign on the door proclaimed it was "QERIC'S ALEHOUSE – BECAUSE ONLY KAKRAN ALE DOESN'T TASTE OF PISS WATER." Qeirc in all his eccentricity was a town character. Tanglewood residents dropped in just to listen to his wild tales of growing up in the Kakra Dwarflands. Qeirc was happy to oblige them—until time passed and they hadn't ordered a drink. Then it was either start a tab or walk.

The dwarf poured a mug of quality ale and set it in front of Nard. "Har, a pint on me fer a brooken hart."

Nard sipped his ale. Death had become his insides.

"Ay, women, alwees the seem," Qeirc ranted. "They bleem the menfoolk fer usin em. But thar the baggast users of em all! A hoop in the heey, a golden charm, a nice dinar and all a sooden yeer all by yer loonsome, maybe wit a couple brats tah look aftar. Ask me ol' bool n cheen, Nard. Ay, she'll tell ya and admeet to it in the seem brath!"

Nard stared into the yellowish liquid. "Maybe...she has a point."

Qeric rapidly waved his hands. "A paint, a paint. Lemmie tell ya something bout paints, Nard! They hade beheend paints, these women do. Aye, thas how they geet ya."

The dwarf shook his head. "S'how they geet ya..."

Ocolla had been absent from the night's patrol. Nard's soul was shredded. Luckily there were few Shadowspawn in the woods this evening. Leave was never granted for a broken heart except in the event of death; there were no exceptions for dying on the inside.

Nard had told the others about Ocolla's decision, but only because they'd noticed she was missing. They'd tried to comfort him but he brushed them off. He was Commander-in-training, and it would be unseemly for the Mates to hold him up.

A single tear ran down his face. He was broken out of thought when Qeric touched his resting palm.

"Ay, Nard. If yar in need uh comfert, a weey to wash the ol' hart crasher outa yer seestem, I know a hoor could teek car uh ya."

"That's...quite alright, Qeric," Nard declined. "Unfortunately, I've got the Shadow Patrol's reputation on my back. Our last Commander was a huge embarrassment. Whoring wouldn't help that. But I do appreciate it."

Qeric started mixing a drink for another patron. "Ay, but yar gonna have ta do somethin fer yer weely wooblin, Nard." The Dwarf handed the drink to the customer and continued. "Else this one'll drag ya down to tha Hell."

Nard nodded. "You're right."

He stood up. "I should. And I will."

Qeric smiled but said nothing. Nard paid his small tab and left.

****

Glowflies positioned themselves on either side of the woodland tunnel, lighting the path in gold. The critters were not chirping tonight; Nard had a feeling they had become a captive audience.

Fien waited for him in the clearing. Her naked body was wholly inviting. Her elevated tips seemed more accented and the wind blew her long blonde hair against skin the color of finest milk.

"You know why I'm here, don't you?" Nard asked, taking in the sight, wanting her beyond measure.

"Yes," Fien replied. "Even without the whispering of the trees, I can sense a broken heart, Sir Nard."

He wept. "What good is leadership, Fien, if I have to lose everything?"

"Oh, dear Nard. You have lost nothing. You are a fine leader and you have lost..." she slipped her arms around his neck. "...absolutely...nothing."

If there were consequences, then consequences be damned. Their kiss melted away all his worries, cares and apprehensions. Lips and tongues battled for supremacy.

Nard stopped long enough to work his way out of his uniform. "I don't want to cause you any pain."

Fien was loosening his belt with delicate fingers. "There will be no pain."

"But you never left this place," Nard said in exasperation and desire. "Unless you've already been with a man, I thought..."

Fien stopped his words with another kiss. "Such matters mean naught to my kind, Sir Nard."

Nard let the matter go and took off his boots. Fien relieved him of his leggings.

"And you will find that the trees have whispered much more to me than tales of the outside, Sir Nard," Fien concluded.

They were both naked now. Fien's twat was swelling and dampening, her aureole puffing. Nard was already fully engorged; pre-cum glistened from his tip.

They locked in a passionate embrace. Her creamy skin was soft against his bare flesh. Her raised tips, as delectable looking as the sweetest candy, poked his chest when her nubile mounds crushed into him. He grabbed a handful of her ass and she squeezed his cock.

As she stroked, her eyes took on an animalistic, lustful quality.

"I invite you to sit, Sir Nard."

The wind cleared away leaves and straw, creating a blanket of dirt. Nard found his seat comfortable. She knelt beside him and retook his hardness.

"So this is a male member," she observed with fascination, studying Nard's erection in her palm. "I have glimpsed many. But to touch and feel one is something altogether different."

Fien squeezed the shaft and brought her mouth onto it, albeit briefly. Then she locked her lustful gaze onto Nard as she jerked him off, using her spit as lubrication.

"And to taste one, too," she rasped.

The treetops swayed with a whistling wind. Glowflies flew in disordered swarms, save for the ones that illuminated Fien. She lowered her mouth again; Nard whipped his head back and shuddered. Fien's technique was slow but creative. She kissed, licked and sucked him, never adhering to any pattern, always finding new places to go.

Her mouth was an orchestra of pleasures and delights. Her saliva was the finest lubrication. Nard found himself in a heaven indescribable in words, and soon his climax started.

"Fien," he moaned.

"Mmm," was her enthralled response.

"Fien...if you don't stop, I'll..."

Fien smiled. She did not stop. As Nard's orgasm neared its bursting point, the nymph increased her speed. Soon he was groaning as he released in Fien's mouth. She remained locked on until he stopped filling her. She swallowed his load in one large gulp.

She grinned and licked wayward spunk from her finger. "Now I have tasted a man. And judging by the volume of your seed, Sir Nard, I believe my first foray was a success."

"Yes," Nard gasped. "You were amazing."

"Perhaps. But I am not finished yet."

Nard was still trying to find his breath. "Maybe...not...but..."

Fien grabbed Nard's withered and softened cock. "Surely you know that there is a vast difference between learning and experiencing. I intend to indulge in all of these delights. You, Sir Nard, shall be my guide."

"And I would, happily," Nard said. "Except men and women are different when it comes to...well, recovery."

"Are they?" Fien wondered.

She spat on her finger and traced the moistened digit across Nard's flaccid flesh.

He watched his dick balloon. In an instant, like time lapsed footage of a growing flower, his shaft hardened into a blunt weapon with thick blue veins and a purple head that barely yielded to touch.

Though it had already happened in the sanitizer, it still surprised Nard.

"How...how often can you do that?" he asked in amazement.

Fien pulled him down on her. "Perhaps you should discover that for yourself."

By the light of the glowflies he saw the want on her face and the steady rise and fall of her supple breasts. Even nymphs breathe air, Nard thought as he positioned himself at her entrance.

He split her moistened snatch and carefully pushed. A virgin she might have been, but she had no hymen.

Her tunnel was soft, warm, and as squishy as it was tight. It was as otherworldly as her mouth. She responded to every in and out thrust with louder cries of joy. Her mounds quivered and rolled. She squeezed both in her hands and tweaked her puffy aureole.

"Yes! More, Sir Nard! More, more!"

Nard granted Fien's wish, increasing his thrusting speed, pluming deeper with each pass. Fien threw her arms around him and pushed him closer to her; he penetrated her to the hilt. By her reactions she was fast approaching her own fulfillment.

"Ungh, how do you like it?" Nard groaned through clenched teeth.

"I love it!" she yelled at the surrounding trees. "Don't stop. Never stop!"

He slammed into her with full force. She wrapped her legs about him and thrust her pelvis forward. She climaxed, and screamed with another seconds later. His cock was covered in her juices and his pre-cum. The forest filled with the sounds of their union, their moans, grunts and shouts, the slapping of his cock and balls against her cunt and ass. Fien's intoxicating vapors drifted through the wind.

Nature itself awakened all around them. The wind picked up speed, swaying the treetops. Glowflies danced and hosts of others joined them. Though Nard was too preoccupied to see, flowers bloomed at the bases of trees. All at once, rising to a crescendo, the critters chirped songs in mixed languages.

Nard was getting close again. Fien had a lead with four rip-roaring orgasms, none of which had tired her. With each orgasmic wave she livened and begged for more, more.

"Fien, I'm...almost there again. Where—"

"—inside me!"

Could nymphs get pregnant? Would her body defy his nullifiers? In that heated moment, Nard didn't care. He growled as a climax, the most mind-numbing, relentless and powerful one he'd ever experienced, utilized every pleasure node in his body. Spurts of cum decorated Fien's insides. She responded by peaking herself.

Now they lay tangled, naked and sweaty together in their makeshift bed. Nard remained inside Fien until his erection diminished, and then he pulled away.

He stood, waiting for the blonde nymph to find her way back to reality. Her long blonde hair was a mess, the flesh below her shoulders crimson. The glowflies made a fine display of her nether glossy, red, and distended cunt. Nard smelled her obvious excitement in the air. They were both caked in dirt.

She looked at him with the face of an insatiable predator.

Nard knew.

"We aren't done, are we?"

Fien shook her head and smiled. A swift poke of her fingers hardened him for another round.

A leaning tree branch supported Fien as she bent over it to offer Nard access. He shoved himself in all the way, having realized there was no need for care.

And so it continued. Onward and onward throughout the wee morning hours they went, his cock returning with every application of Fien's magic fingers as they tried every position.

Nard awoke after dawn. He was on the ground, dressed in his uniform. Fien was nowhere in sight. A small purple flower, tucked behind his ear, told him she was close.

****

Much happened over the next two weeks.

After the emotional exchange at HQ, a digiletter on Nard's InforMachine told him of Ocolla's whereabouts:

Dearest Nard,

I realize that we didn't part on the best terms, and as much as it pains me, you probably hate me now. I want to take this opportunity to explain myself.

I had a long conversation with Chief Zy. Perhaps he told you. At first I thought it would be different if I just joined a different Wingspan. But the two of us mutually agreed that with your new position, it wouldn't be prudent for you and I to carry on our relationship no matter where I was in Tanglewood's Shadow Patrol, especially with the mess Ulily left.

Adding to that, I didn't want my continued presence around HQ to distract you on the field. As a leader in charge of Mates, I wanted you out there with a clear mind. Remember that we fight monsters, Nard. They never stop when we are down.

I have since moved to a new town and transferred to another Shadow Patrol.

Please forgive me, Nard.

~ Ocolla.

When Nard closed the digiletter he felt some relief. Though his heart still bled for Ocolla, his sorrow diminished with each passing day.

Nard was at first uncomfortable with his new promotion, but soon grew into it. Chief Zy's intuition had been correct. Nard's only problem had been a lack of confidence; he was a natural leader, and his Eastern Wingspan found the Shadowspawn falling much faster than it had under Ulily.

The days and nights fell into a steady routine. After patrol Nard joined his fellow Mates for a nightcap. Then he drove his pod to the forest, where he fell into Fien's waiting arms every morning.

The nymph had an insatiable sexual appetite, always restoring Nard's erection through at least four rounds until he reluctantly bid her farewell. Within that fourteen days he learned every inch and crevice of her body, from her abdominal muscles to the freckle behind her knee to the taut pink anus that Fien had no use for except as a new place for Nard to put his cock.

But the more Nard went to Fien's forest, the more he wished Fien could leave with him. He knew that was impossible. But something within him was changing. Soon it was no longer a wish for lustful fulfillment; he wanted to show Fien his home, Tanglewood, HQ, and introduce her to his friends, all of whom knew nothing of her save Etaeli. It was beginning to cloud his thoughts.

One morning, as Nard lapped away at Fien's cunt, his tongue dancing on her clitoral bud with wild abandon, he could contain the matter no longer. She moaned with an orgasm and overwhelmed Nard's taste buds with her nectar.

"Fien?"

"Y-yes, Sir Nard?"

"Do you ever wish you could step outside?"

Fien reigned in her breathing. "You know I cannot do that, Sir Nard."

"I-I know, but if you had the freedom to come and go like I can, would you take it?"

She thought it over. "If leaving my borders did not rob me of life? I am not sure. It would be an adjustment. This is the only home I have ever known, Sir Nard. Though I cannot leave, I am comfortable here. This forest has all the amenities of your world, Sir Nard."

"How can you be sure?" Nard asked curiously.

"I have seen it through the trees, Sir Nard," Fien replied.

"True," Nard said, "but there's a difference between seeing and experiencing. You said so yourself when I brought you sex. Witnessing and feeling were two different extremes, remember?"

Then he dropped something he'd meant to keep to himself until he was sure there was a way. He never proposed anything before there was a working plan, akin to making promises sure to be broken.

"Fien...what if I could make you human?"

****

Nard had not seen Etaeli this perplexed and ambivalent in all the years they'd known each other. The question had shaken him.

"Her forest is her life support," Etaeli firmly reminded Nard. The Elf stared sadly into his empty glass. "The moment she steps outside its boundaries she withers and die."

"There has to be some kind of spell!" Nard insisted.

Etaeli looked at Nard with a tired expression. "You mean a spell to make something living and nonhuman human? Polymorphory? Next to impossible. Aside from golem animation and necromancy, I have never heard of even the strongest wizards delving into such magics. Nor our kind. You may as well ask for immortality."

The Elf sat on his couch in defeat. "So. It has started."

"What has?"

Etaeli was serious and grave. The room seemed to darken with his melancholic mood.

"I warned you, Nard. I warned you of this nymph's power. You are obviously in love with her, and in your desperation you grasp for heights unobtainable."

He sighed and shook his head. "Their power of unconditional love is not inflicted on purpose. It is only the fault of what they are. Nature weaves its image of perfect beauty. And how does one respond to perfect beauty? By becoming enraptured. Nard, it pains me to say this because you are a dear friend. I would sooner pierce my own heart clean through than harm you. But I'm afraid you've traded a Friend Impassioned for a Friend Impassioned.

"The question becomes, can you deal with these limitations? If you are content to visit her until your dying days to chat and satisfy carnal needs, by all means continue. But life, Nard. Jokes over the breakfast table. Walks in the park. Music. Film premieres in the city. Marriage, children, grandchildren, gifts at Winter Hearth, smiles and laughter from your offspring. If that is what you want Nard, you will be gravely disappointed."

Nard was silent, as if contemplating Etaeli's words. His face changed several times, from confusion to sadness to pain.

Then he stood up.

"Thanks for the kwaid wine," Nard said. "Always delicious."

"Where are you going?" Etaeli asked with some alarm.

"To do research," Nard replied. Then he turned to leave. The Elf jumped up and made long strides toward him.

"Nard. Nard, no!"

The door closed. Nard was gone.

****

'Polymorphory' was the term Etaeli had used. If there was a word for it, then it must exist. After tonight's patrol, he would make his search a top priority.

If he found his answer, he would inform Fien first. He would not force any magic upon her without her knowledge or consent. If she wanted to stay in the forest, that was her decision to wield. But he would search.

Right now there were more pressing matters. A Shadow of the blackest pitch had displayed on the radar's southeast quadrant, a Shadow so menacing and mean looking that Chief Zy had merged the Southern and Eastern Wingspans into one group. Each Wingspan would retain its Commander but the two teams would cooperate as a single unit. They moved lightly into the dark wood, Kickers as their primary weapons, batteries fresh, silencers tested.

Chief Zy insisted on constant communication back to HQ. He also ordered paramedics to be on hand.

"Mates," he addressed the combined team before departure, "fear is an enemy I would wish upon none of you. But it has been a hell of a long time since I have seen a Shadow this threatening. Use your best judgment in all matters. Take no chances. Leave no risk unchecked. And may the gods be kind to the lot of you."